SENDaBALL.com



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About us

Sendaball, Inc. is a family run business headquartered in Chicago. It is owned by a couple of BALLSY sisters who live across the street from each other in the same northwestside Chicago neighborhood they grew up in. They have been sending balls since the 90s, but one day in 2003 it seemed this CRAZY idea was meant to be a BUSINESS.

Michele tells it like this: How did it start? I come from the direct mail world, so I knew the mailing rules. I made a practice of sending silly things in the mail over the years. One day I was in Osco, saw a BIN of bouncy balls, grabbed one and thought. "I can mail this.” I took a sharpie, addressed it to my BFF Sharon, wrote "Have BALL with your new baby,” went to the post office and mailed it. Sharon loved it so much, my sister and I sent them again and again to other friends. A few years later while standing in line at the post office, a guy behind me asked about the balls and asked if I could send one for him. Initially I instructed him in the steps to do it himself, but by the time we got to the front of the line, he had given me the info and $5. Laughing, I called my sister and told her how funny that just was. She said, "MICH, I THINK WE ARE ONTO SOMETHING.”

Melisa tells it like this: When I got that call, I told Michele I had seen an OPRAH the night before about women who took a chance & started a business with their unique ideas; I told her to “LISTEN TO ME”, these are all ‘signs’ and WE should start a business, NOW.

Number one rule - if someone offers to pay you to do something you are already doing, you may have a business!!! (Donny Deutsch said this all the time on his show THE BIG IDEA). Sendaball has been very fortunate to have been growing since 2003 by taking baby steps in the business world. Our customers are the absolute best, and most order over and over. Many of the people who get a SENDaBALL in the mail, order a ball for someone else. We enjoy hearing the stories from the customers about how a simple ball coming in the mail can bring so much laughter. Oh the stories we could tell. Maybe we should write a book!

Michele is married and has four children. Melisa is married and has 3 children . Before starting SENDaBALL, the sisters spent many hours trying to come up with a way to run a business so at least ONE of them could stay home with their children. Who would have thought the idea was there all along. One of their brothers, Marc (we call him Sparky), lives next door. His wife, Deanna works for SENDaBALL, too. It is truely a family affair. The sisters have two other brothers who don't live on the same block, but are certainly ON CALL if they are needed. If you ever have a story to share, just drop us an email.

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Frequently Asked Questions - Greeting Balls

How big is the ball?

About the size of your head. Sendaballs are in a category called 10 inch vinyl playballs – which means they are about 10 inches in diameter. The 7 year old boy on the ‘home’ page is holding a Sendaball – there you can see the size comparison. It is about the size of a volleyball. Because of temperature variations across the country, the ball received may be a little bigger or a little smaller. When they leave Chicago, they are all 10 inches.

How do you ship?

The balls are sent fully inflated and are sent First Class Mail by the regular United States Postal Service. The balls are addressed by hand, stamped and mailed. Not in a box, no bubble wrap or string or tape. Just the ball.

How long does it take?

Orders generally ship the next business day and take anywhere from 4 to 14 business days to be delivered. Delivery depends on the location. We are shipping from Chicago so Midwest orders seem to arrive fairly quickly and orders to both coasts take a bit longer. Sometimes the Postal Service isn't as efficient as we'd like, so we have to be patient.

Can it fit in a mailbox?

No. Over the past 10 years we have shipped balls to all kinds of buildings and all kinds of mailboxes, all over the world. The balls are treated as a ‘PACKAGE’ so the post office finds a way to get it to them.

What does the post office think?

The post office loves SENDaBALL. They even featured us on the front cover of their Great Lakes Quarterly Newsletter last February. Usually the carrier enjoys delivering this unusual item as much as the recipient enjoys getting it. About 15% of our customers are postal workers, so I think they like it.

Can I pick a color?

Colors vary with all the balls, but you can request a color in the additional instructions area of the order form. We will do our best to send that color or something close to it.

I asked for a pink ball and I got a purple one?

As hard as we may try, we cannot always honor your color requests, but we do try to find something comparable. Trust that we will do our best. We try not to send pink balls to boys or blue balls to girls unless requested.

Can I delay a shipment for a later date?

Sure, just add a note to the additional instructions field and we will see it there!

Can I ship to a military address, APO, AFO, etc?

YES. It takes longer than regular mail (but you probably already know that) but it does get there! No extra charge for any military address. God Bless those soldiers!

Can I send a ball out of the country?

Yes, $3 extra and it takes about 2 or 3 weeks.

I did not get a confirmation.

A confirmation email is sent IMMEDIATELY after you place your order. Check your SPAM folder, it sometimes ends up there.

Can you ship to a P.O. Box?

Yes, the post office will put a note in the box and the person will have to arrange to pick it from the window, just like a package.

Can you ship to College?

Oh yes! And what fun that is! Usually they put a note in the mailbox for the student to pick up a package from the window and it gets TOSSED at them!

What if the person I am shipping to is not home when it is delivered?

The balls are treated by the post office as first class mail. In most cases, the postman finds a way to get it delivered. Sometime they put it in a clear bag and hang it on the door knob, or place it between the doors. Or, they may put a yellow sticker on the door indicating they attempted to deliver a ‘package’ and tell them it is at the post office for them.

What if the ball arrived deflated or popped?

Very rare, but not impossible. The post office has instructions to return the ball to US if it is deflated or popped and we will ship out a new one lickety split. BUT, on the rare occasion that a ball does arrive deflated or popped, PLEASE EMAIL OR CALL US and we will ship out a new one. We have shipped thousands and thousands of balls, this is EXTREMELY RARE.

I don’t have a credit Card, can I send a check.

Yes, just email us the information and send a check in the mail for $19.95 to SENDaBALL, 5341 N. McVicker Ave, Chicago, IL 60630. Once we receive the check we will mail your ball.

Is this a secure site?

YES. Our orders are processed thru NET BILLING which was specifically recommended to us by VISA/MASTER CARD as a SECURE SITE for a small business. SENDaBALL has no access to your credit card information.

Can you rush an order?

Unfortunately, we cannot offer rush service at this time.

I'm having trouble getting my order to go through. HELP!

It's rare, but we occasionally experience difficulties processing credit cards due to the security measures put in place by credit card companies. Most commonly, there is a problem with the card number and address. If you get frustrated, please just email your order information and we will call you for the credit information and process it manually.

Q & A

What is SENDaBALL ?It’s very much like a greeting card - only it’s not a card - it’s a 10” diameter (31” Circumference, about the size of a volleyball) fully inflated vinyl playball - you know: the kind of ball you see in the bins at the drug store..the ones we used to play kick baseball with when we were kids.

Is this your idea ? Yes.

How did you come up with it ? I am just like everyone else , I just happen to come from the direct mail industry and I’ve seen a lot of crazy things sent thru the mail. We used to open the business reply mail right in the office in the old days, I have seen shoes, bricks, bags of paper, all kinds of stuff. I remember getting a coconut sent to me once from Hawaii – did you ever see one of those? I had a friend who had a baby and I wanted to send her something great as a greeting. So I went to my local drug store and walked up and down the isles looking for something I could mail…then I saw it…in one of those bins…a lightweight colorful ball…I happened to have a sharpie in my purse so I headed to the post office. I wrote on the ball as I stood in line…gotta think of some pun, that would make it funny…..have a ball with your new baby…that’s it! I added the address on the other and the postal clerk weighed it, put a metered stamp on it and off it went…when my friend got it she was so excited. I did it over and over again for family and friends. I loved the WOW factor.

When did you turn it into a business? This is a funny story. Keep in mind I am in sales and Michele and I both have small children – ironically we live across the street from each other in the same neighborhood we grew up in, so we see each other a lot…a little too much sometimes for me….but just about every day we would talk about seeing some new idea. Gosh, we should think of something like that. Like the lady who invented post it notes or liquid paper, those are the kind of people that inspire us just to start thinking, probably like your listeners are doing right now.

Or the guy who opened Starbucks, we can do that! We are just like everyone listening. We are just regular people trying to catch that American dream wave and ride it. We thought of it all. Open a Thrift Store or frozen custard shop, we even thought of doing bikini waxing home parties…which I still think is a great idea…in the same breath I tried to talk my sister in to going to esthetician school I would give her a piece of paper and say “can you send a ball to this client I met with yesterday”. 98% of the time I got a phone call back from the client…I have gotten several emails from clients asking how they could send one…and not thinking I told them how to do it, they didn’t want to do it, they wanted to order one…this went on for years.

Until Michele was in the post office and an old guy came up to her…granted she had talked to people in line in the past, oh yah Michele wanted to open a coffee stand at the corner of our block where the commuter train stops…that was another one. We got some crazy emails…she called me when she got home (because she doesn’t have a cell phone, she thinks it’s silly) I said are you kidding me, this is our business, what idiots…stay on the phone with me…with in 30 minutes we had a website (domain) a name, I ordered business cards and did a patent search…I also did a search for someone who was doing this business..I thought surly someone has seen our ball somewhere and knew it was a great idea before we did. We just got all these signs… Oprah had a segment My sister is an Oprah freak but I am in bed and never can catch the late night rerun…I just couldn’t sleep one night…women who started their own business…one of the women say…get business cards…I am pretty conservative and don’t like to take chances with my money as I struggle just like everyone else….

What do you do with return balls or ones you screw up? We give our OOPS BALLS to different children’s hospitals and local preschools around our neighborhood in Chicago. Sometimes we see piles of them in the waiting room at the hospital-what fun!

What is your advise to our listeners? You know you have all done it, sat around and you are probably saying to yourself, why didn’t I think of that. Well you can. Is there something you do better then anyone else. Does everyone compliment you on something…you have great eyebrows and you do them your self, you just have a knack for them…I would think this: and eyebrow make over party is great…25 bucks to do your eyebrows…you can rent a chair at a salon and make it event…Maybe you can quilt…offer a service to quilt peoples clothes into a blanket….I knew a women who’s grandma saved a piece of her clothing every year and when she got married, she gave her the quilt…what a great business

Who Came up with a tv show idea…I did about 10 years ago about decorating your house with thrift stores…it was called recycle, restyle. It’s in you and it’s under your nose. I told my sister when I wanted to start this business. Find a partner…don’t quite your job…you might think the worst thing that could happen is we will end up with 10K play balls…the worst thing that could happen is we don’t take this chance to try and make something of this great idea.

What I love about this business is we don’t make pace makers or the batteries that go into pace makers…we make people smile.

What’s the craziest ball you ever sent? An NHL Hockey player sent two separate Greeting Balls to a fellow NHL player: they said: I’m sending you these because you don’t have any – now ask her marry you!”

Do you ship anything else? Hockey Pucks that say: PUCKER UP I’m sending a kiss or Happy PUCKIN birthday. I have buckets now that say: HAVE A BUCKET OF FUN on your birthday. And slices of tree that say: what WOOD I do without you?

Your first idea might not get you out of the poor house, but that idea might lead you to the idea that get’s you out of the poor house.

Will this lead you anywhere? I don’t know… lot’s of folk’s have asked us to write a book of business idea and how to start them and identify them. Who knows. There are always going to be people who want to send birthday wishes! Why send a card, when you can SEND A BALL?

Celebrities…? Yes however we can’t tell who has ordered them, but we have sent balls to many famous people. We sent a ball to the POPE – it said, Have a Ball celebrating one year being the POPE , from the sisters at SendaBall…We got a color photo from him with a letter that said, Dear Sisters, thank you for the gift. OOPS may have misled the POPE. We sent a ball to Barry Manilow when he had hip surgery and even RIP TAYLOR got a ball last week and absolutely LOVED IT.

PRESS RELEASE January 5, 2010

Sharks Catch Two Chicago Sisters By Surprise –

airs Jan 29th on ABC

Chicago, IL, January 5, 2010 -- Melisa Sipolt Moroko & Michele Sipolt Kapustka, both from the Jefferson Park Neighborhood in Chicago, were shocked when the caller ID on the phone showed “MARK BURNETT PRODUCTIONS”.

After a load of questions, the sisters were invited to audition for a New ABC reality show, SHARK TANK.

From Mark Burnett, executive producer

of Survivor and The Apprentice, Shark Tank, is a reality show that gives budding entrepreneurs the chance to make their business dreams come true. But the entrepreneurs must first try to convince five tough, multi-millionaire tycoons to part with their own cash and give them the funding.

The fun, energetic and inspiring sisters live across the street from each other in the same working class Chicago neighborhood their grandparents emigrated to from Eastern Europe. Together, they own and operate a business called SENDaBALL, Inc.

SENDaBALL, Inc. is the original creator of the fully-inflated Greeting Ball which is sent in the mail. No packaging or box; just the ball, stamps and a clever “puntastic” message. A SENDaBALL is a greeting card, but it happens to be BALL and it doesn’t come in an envelope. Getting a BALL in the MAIL usually brings laughter and few questions like: HOW DID THEY DO THIS?

Melisa and Michele say one of the best parts of having a business like this is, “we don’t sell pacemakers or the batteries that go in pacemakers, we simply sell smiles.”

Catch the Sendaball Sisters, Friday, January 29, 2010 9:00pm EST-8:00 PM CST on ABC’s Shark Tank, when they face a panel of millionaire sharks and ask them to invest in their greeting card company.

What happens in the tank? The sisters can only say, (cue Jaws music…) “dun dun… dun dun, you will have to watch and see. But we can tell you there were quite a few BALL jokes.”

For information:

Contact:

Michele Sipolt Kapustka, Co-Founder & CEO

Melisa Sipolt Moroko, Co-Founder & CMO

michele@ or

melisa@

Ballroom Phone: 1-773-631-1121

Michele Cell: 773-860-6424

The Sendaball Sisters are

Available for Interviews

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BIG BALLS BIG IDEA

CHICAGO, IL. – Michele Sipolt Kapustka and Melisa Sipolt Moroko, are owners and founders of SENDaBALL®, Inc. a Chicago based online Greeting Ball company. The sisters, who live across the street from each other, have appeared on numerous tv shows, including ABC’S Shark Tank, NBC’s Today Show, and The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch.

SENDaBALL, Inc. is a greeting card company that sends a 10 inch, INFLATED vinyl ball with a puntastic message like, “Have a BALL on your Birthday” or “Bounce Back Soon” through regular USPS First Class Mail to anywhere in the world. The company has been sending balls out of their Jefferson Park Ballroom since 2003.

Requests for further details should be directed to:

Michele Sipolt Kapustka

SENDaBALL, Inc. ®

5341 N. McVicker Ave

Chicago, IL 60630

BALLROOM Phone: 773-631-1121

Toll Free: 866-90-BALLS

Michele cell: 773-860-6424

e-mail: michele@

The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch on CNBC:

iParenting Media Awards:

Today Show on NBC:

TELEVISION APPEARENCES

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RADIO

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MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

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USPS Great Lakes Area Update Newsletter

BOOKS

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Copy of article in the Chicago Tribune Q-Section November 9, 2003

Headline: When you care enough to send the very bounciest ------------ byWendy Navratil

November 9, 2003

She's known around the Jefferson Park Post Office as the Lady with the Balls.

Just about every day, Michele Sipolt Kapustka arrives with arms full of vinyl balls in all shades of the rainbow. They are stamped with jumbo messages, addresses and postage and sent on their way, without burden of any additional packaging, to recipients far and wide.

"The clerks get a kick out of it," she said. "You know they talk about me at postal conventions!"

For six years, she had been using Sharpie markers to scrawl messages to friends and family on balls and similarly unconventional media, including wood, chopsticks, hockey pucks, even rocks. Postal workers and customers were always so curious, she decided to focus on the balls and began marketing her idea last summer as SENDaBALL, imprinting wishes such as "Have a BALL on your birthday," or "BOUNCE Back Soon."

Via word of mouth alone--"I make a lot of sales just standing in line at the post office," she said--she just took a 1,000-ball order from a company for its sales force.

Far from running afoul of postal workers, she has become a VIP. She simply must keep the size of the balls below 10 inches diameter. They even send a truck to pick up her big orders.

"I told [the postmaster] he'd be cursing me in a few weeks," she said, "and he

said he wouldn't. Revenue is revenue."

Check . Balls are about $9 each, including shipping.

Copyright (c) 2003, Chicago Tribune

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Why Send A Card When You Can SENDaBALL!

By Beth Anderson   on December 19, 2008 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Michele Sipolt Kapustka has taken humor and a children's toy to THE BIG IDEA with Donny Deutsch.  Coining the phrase, "Great minds think alike", Michele and her sister started a business sending inflated balls through the mail each with a special message.  With this idea, SENDaBALL was born!

Michele, can you please tell Chic readers a little about yourself and how you got started? 

Myself?  Oh certainly.  3rd of 5 kids in a working class family.  Went to a liberal arts college (Augustana) and I worked for the same direct mail company for 17 years as a creative director in downtown Chicago.  I am married to my high school boyfriend, and we have 4 boys. My sister lives across the street from me and we are both pretty creative outgoing people.  We regularly would try to come up with THE BIG IDEA that would afford at least one of us to stay home with our kids (we have 7 between us).  We had idea after idea.  All talk.  Over the years it has always been a running joke in my family that I can send silly stuff in the mail without an envelope or a box.  I sent my sister a pair of chopsticks from San Francisco - just wrapped the stamps around it and wrote her address really really small on the square side.  I've sent a sandal, a sugar packet, a rock, a brick (that was expensive).  Then a few years ago I was in Osco and happened to notice that big bin of BOUNCY BALLS on sale for 99 cents.  I had an idea.  I could send that.  So I wrote on it

"HAVE A BALL with your new baby" to my girlfriend, and took it to the post office - they mailed it.  It was so funny when she called laughing.  So - over the years I would send balls now and then, but no big deal.

Then, one day in June 2003 I was entering a contest with a ball (you will HAVE A BALL if you pick me to win) and a guy behind me asked me over and over what kind of business it was.  I told him it wasn't a business, but he insisted that I send a ball for him to his friend.  He gave me $6.  It was strange - so I called my sister and told her about the funny encounter, and she screamed "I THINK WE ARE ONTO SOMETHING".  Within 7 minutes on the phone with her, we had bought a website for $9.99  - put "under construction" on it and my phone number. We had a business.

Where do you draw inspiration for your products?

Well - I really like the PUN thing - so I look for light weight items that I can use a PUN with.  The ball thing is the best, hands down. We then did hockey pucks for our brothers that said, "Merry PUCKIN Christmas".  We have sand pail buckets that say, "have a bucket of fun on your birthday".  We have slices of a tree branch that say, "What WOOD I do without you?".  I have a small plastic golf club that says, "Welcome to the club".  They all go in the mail with no packaging.  I offer those special items to my regular customers for the same price.

Describe your best selling items or favorite experience with your business?

Best selling item is the ball, and probably the HAVE A BALL because people just add their message after that...like:  with your new baby, in your new home, with your new job, celebrating the season, etc.

Best story is one from when we first got started, we sent a BOUNCE BACK SOON ball.  The person who sent it called to thank me - which alone was so great.  She told me she sent the ball to her Aunt who was fighting cancer.  When her aunt called to thank her for the ball, she was laughing.  Her aunt told her she hasn't even smiled in the last 4 months, and now she has not stopped laughing for 10 minutes.  The postman had the strangest look on his face, and she just started laughing.  Those are the things that make it worth it.  I get at least one email or call a week with a funny or touching story.  I eat it up!!!

There is also all the funny BALL jokes.  This one is my sisters favorite.  Professional hockey player sent 2 balls to another Professional hockey player who had been dating a wonderful girl for a few years.  The ball said, "I'm sending these because you don't have any - ask her to marry you already!".  It was so funny.

We also have sent balls for retirement that say, TAKE YOUR BALL AND GO HOME - happy retirement.

I got a million of em!

What are your plans for the future?

Plans for the future ... wow ... good question.

After 9/11, like many americans, I re-evaluated the need for my full time job downtown and started doing free-lance from home so I could be physically closer to my kids. What I set out to do is start a small business that I could run from home so I can keep tabs on my boys and make enough money to send them to school.

What has happened, tho, is that I have been able to show my boys that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE, and with enough hard work and faith in yourself, you can really make a business!!!  So, I would like to grow the ball business to a point where a larger company would want to buy it and take it to the next level -  it is my baby, so it would be important who it would go to and perhaps I could stay involved in some creative way.

Keeping these 4 boys of mine fed and sending them to college is going to be quite a

challenge, so financial security would be a dream.  Then I can move onto another BIG IDEA or two.

Right now, I do what I can to encourage people to follow their entrepreneurial spirit on a

small scale.  I would like to expand that.  I am high energy and enthusiastic and LOVE to help people.  Giving back is HUGE.  I tell my boys that the absolutely number one job I have in this world, is to raise KIND MEN who contribute in a positive way to the world.

Also - being a guest on CNBCs BIG IDEA with Donny Deutsch (boy oh boy is he ever handsome) was a big step for me, very validating to have someone tell me my idea was AWESOME and could very well make MILLIONS.

Visit .  Chicago, Illinois

Beth Anderson is the Editor in Chief of Chic and Co-Owner of Chic Galleria Publications.

Beth Anderson is the Editor in Chief of Chic and Co-Owner of Chic Galleria Publications.

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